In the press

A world-renowned expert on the reduction of risks involved in heart surgery has been dismissed from Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, after violation of academic integrity. In one study it was found that he used patient data without permission, used fictitious data, and that two reports were submitted to conferences which included knowingly unreliable data.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission launched the National Anti-corruption strategy in 2010. It is in this light that a two-day workshop on understanding and dissemination of the strategy in the Ministry of Basic Education opened in Yaounde last Thursday. The workshop brought together officials of the central and regional services from across the country.

The Uganda government was last evening left searching for alternative sources of funding following the withdrawal of support to the education sector by one of its key donors. The Dutch government announced it was withdrawing funding to a tune of nearly Shs50b (14 million Euro), citing concerns over persistent corruption, poor public financial management and poor standards.

According to the most recent report of Accredibase, the UK-based background screening company Verifile Limited, there was a staggering 48% increase in the number of known degree or diploma mills operating worldwide last year. It identified more than 2,500 bogus institutions across all regions, but primarily in North America and Europe.

Iona College acknowledged Tuesday that its former provost had, for nearly a decade, manipulated and misreported student-related data to government officials, accrediting bodies, bond rating agencies, and others.

A Tilburg University inquiry has recommended that details of forgery of documents and fraud committed by a leading social psychologist should be passed to the Dutch public prosecution service.

Private and public universities in South Korea have engaged in creative accounting practices resulting in excessive hikes in tuition fees, the state audit agency said. Wrapping up an investigation into 35 randomly chosen universities, including nine public institutions, the Board of Audit and Inspection said the institutions had habitually manipulated their accounting books over the past five years to justify steep rises in tuition expenses.

The study "Plagiarism and the Web" analyzed more than 33.5 million papers submitted to the Turnitin service from June 2010 to June 2011. In those papers, iParadigms' researchers found 128 million "content matches" from a wide variety of Web sources.

The University of Wales will cease to exist after mounting a series of damaging revelations. An investigation revealed last week that overseas students at Rayat London College, in Hounslow, were sold diploma exam answers in advance of taking the test.

Swaziland's Minister of Finance has told the Senate that each year the country loses nearly double the annual social services budget to corruption. He estimated that about US$10.6 million a month was disappearing – amounting to about US$128 million annually - while the government's 2010/11 budget allocated US$75 million to social services, including US$24.2 million for education.